BlackBerry 7: Getting Started Guide

Having just received a new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone, I made some notes while setting it up and put together the following guide to help new users get started with BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones. So if you’ve just purchased one or plan on purchasing one in the near future, here are a few things you’ll want to know.

Before we begin, if you are upgrading from a previous BlackBerry® smartphone, you can use the Device Switch Wizard included with BlackBerry® Desktop Manager to quickly migrate your settings to a new BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone. For more information on how to do this, check out the following links:

As soon as you start up a new BlackBerry 7 smartphone for the first time you’ll be asked to sign in to BlackBerry® ID, or create a new BlackBerry ID if you don’t have one. BlackBerry ID is a single sign-on identity for BlackBerry devices, apps, servers and web portals. Visit the BlackBerry ID website to learn more about this useful service in case you aren’t familiar with it already.

After signing in, a short video will play that shows you how to interact with BlackBerry 7. The Setup app will then open automatically which will allow you to setup your email and customize other features and will also provide tips and tricks. Stay tuned for a future post on this section in more detail!

When you are finished setting up your usual apps such as email, BlackBerry® Messenger and social networking apps, here are few more things you should do:

(Note: The following links will be to the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone user guide. For other user guides, visit http://docs.blackberry.com)

Secure it! – Setting a password to unlock your BlackBerry smartphone is something everyone should do since it is an easy way to protect your personal information. For information on how to set this up, click here.

Back it up! – Thanks to automatic backup options offered by the tips below, you can prevent losing important personal information, saving you a lot of potential frustration.

BlackBerry® Protect – Included with every BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone and found in the Applications folder, BlackBerry Protect is designed to allow you to find and remotely protect your personal information. Just a few of the great features included is the ability to remotely locate and lock your BlackBerry smartphone as well as over the air backup and the ability to restore your contacts, calendar info and more! To learn more about BlackBerry Protect and get started with it, visit the BlackBerry Protect website or open BlackBerry Protect from the applications folder.

Something to keep in mind is that BlackBerry Protect cannot remotely turn on the device, and is not supported when the device is off or if it is activated against a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (“BES”). If activated on BES, contact your IT administrator for more information on how your information is protected and backed up via your BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

BlackBerry Desktop Software – Available for Windows and Mac, BlackBerry Desktop Software is a tool that allows you to automatically backup and restore your BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone. You can also use it to synchronize your personal information as well as music, pictures and videos.

BlackBerry Messenger – Recently a friend asked me what I’d miss the most if I had to start from scratch on my BlackBerry smartphone, and the answer was my BlackBerry Messenger contact list. Backing up your contact list can be done automatically or manually in a few seconds. For info on how to back up your contacts, check out the BlackBerry Messenger user guide.

Become a BlackBerry Guru

At this point we’ve signed in using a BlackBerry ID, finished using the Setup app and done a few things to help secure and protect your personal information. The last thing I’d recommend doing now is reviewing the user guide for your BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone, as it contains a lot of useful info you should know.

Here a few of the topics I think you should check out in particular – and don’t forget that you can find your BlackBerry smartphone user guide at http://docs.blackberry.com

What do you like the most about the new BlackBerry 7 OS? Leave a comment and let us know as we’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to stop by the BlackBerry Support Community Forums and say hi to @BlackBerryHelp.

The views expressed on any corporate or individual's personal website or any Twitter account are not necessarily those of BlackBerry. The user's Twitter account and/or personal website, any corporate website, or any comments contained on any of the foregoing have not been reviewed by BlackBerry and do not constitute an endorsement by BlackBerry.